De Zerbi explains where it went so badly wrong for Spurs against Brentford
· Yahoo Sports
Roberto De Zerbi believes Spurs lacked the fight needed to win duels against Brentford as they fell to a humiliating 3-0 defeat on Saturday evening.
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The Bees were rampant in the opening half at the Gtech Community Stadium, scoring twice through Keane Lewis Potter and Vitaly Janelt.
Tottenham looked disjointed, and any hope of mounting a second-half comeback were put to bed just three minutes after the break when Michael Kayode fired in the host’s third goal of the day.
In his post-match interview, De Zerbi said his players need to improve their fitness and organisation, but emphasised their inability to win duels in the game, singling out Mikey Moore for criticism when it came to the youngster’s pressing from the front.
De Zerbi explains where it went so badly wrong for Spurs against Brentford
“We suffered physically but we knew that before the game,” the Italian told Sky Sports. “We were not ready to fight the duels, we made a lot of mistakes in the timing of the pressure with Mikey Moore on the left centre-back.
“We arrived late too many times late, but then we lost too many duels to compete with Brentford. I’m sorry for that, I’m sorry for the defeat.
“I know we have to improve in the physical condition, we have to improve in the organisation because there were many new players. But it’s the first game, it’s the part of our journey.
“We knew before the game that with a lot of new players, to become a team we need two things: soul and style of play. Today I think there was the soul, but in the end we didn’t fight in the right way for the difference of the duels. Brentford is one of the most important teams in the Premier League n terms of duels. But a fair game.
“I believe in my players. It was a game, especially in the first half in one direction, we were in the right position with high pressure – I said with Mikey Moore. If you analyse the game, you can see how many duels we lost in the first half. The direction of the game went towards Brentford.
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Asked if he expects Spurs to be fighting in the lower half of the Premier League table again, De Zerbi replied: “I think no. We didn’t remember last season, but all these players are good people and people with values and memory. But we lost too many duels. One of the best qualities of Brentford is the one-to-one, the man-to-man and the set pieces.
“The first XI was able to compete. Normally, if the game went in this way, now we can say a lot of things. But I don’t lose confidence in the players and these people. We have to work, to improve, to analyse better the game and to find the improvement.
“We have to analyse this game. We can’t destroy everything because we are working well. We are improving the physical condition. It is not all at the same point because a lot of players started the season late like Senesi, Bergvall and a lot of players.
“But I don’t want excuses, stay focused on the improvement we have to do. The first one is to find the right spirit to fight. Today, not maybe the spirit, but we were not right to fight.
When asked if he expected better from his side on the opening weekend, De Zerbi responded: “Better? For sure. I didn’t expect this result. But I knew the problems we could find today. Especially in the duels, like I said.”
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